Top 10 Albums of the Last Decade
Ok, so this is the really hard one. Most of the so-called critics had a top 10 list in January, but a true professional like me needs at least till mid-July to work this sort of thing out. The consequences of getting something like this wrong are truly mind-blowing. So, starting from number 10:
10. Funeral – Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire brought a really great sound to the decade, proving there was life after post rock, and that you can never have too many people in your band. An exciting and messy musical mutation that earned a lot of time in my CD-player.
9. Honeycomb – Frank Black
The legendary singer-songwriter creates his perfect album. I imagine this is one I’ll still be listening to in 30 years time. A mix of covers and new material all adding up to the best country album ever made.
8. Dig Lazarus Dig – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Emerging from the brilliant Grinderman experiment, Nick Cave brings a fresh take to his Bad Seeds sound, and at least his best album since the flawless No More Shall You Part. Midnight Man alone would get a lesser album into this list.
7. Cassadaga – Bright Eyes
Better than everything that came before it, and then some. Connor Oberst delivers one of those truly great albums. This guy gets better and better. (The two subsequent Mystical Valley Band albums are almost good enough to make this list too, but I didn’t want to overload this selection with Connor Oberst.)
6. Illinois – Sufjan Stevens
5 years on, and Sufjan still hasn’t released a follow-up to this masterpiece. And it’s no wonder. This really is a terrific and epic recording that really justifies the very concept of the the album.
5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The freshest sound of the decade. Totally indescribable and inimitable. Both albums this decade are worth picking up (£3 each last time I looked).
4. Z – My Morning Jacket
The Jacket are really one of those stand-out bands from the last 10 years. Shame no one’s ever heard of them in this country. These guys deserve to be big outside of the US and have a great rock sound and playful energy that is seriously lacking in today’s charisma-free rock groups.
3. Ys – Johanna Newsom
Epic country pixie singing! A sort of Appalachian Bjork. Not for everyone, but stick with it and the themes and melodies of this epic yet delicate album will charm you and bring you back time and again. A real treat.
2. Kid A – Radiohead
Released in 2000, so just making it to this list. Radiohead’s finest album sits very near the top of my list. Also worth mentioning: In Rainbows, their latest, effort is nearly as good.
1. Takk – Sigur Ros
I didn’t think they could do better than ( ), but with Takk they trounce the desolation of that superb album with an even more phenomenal celebration of life, happiness, and pixie singing. Everyone should own this album, it’s a true masterpiece and a delightful listen every time I put it on.
Special mention needs to go to Kate Bush’s Aerial. The Killers’ Sam’s Town. And Godspeed You Black Emperor’s Yanqui UXO. If This was a top 13 I would probably have posted this by March. Predictions for the next decade? Sufjan Stevens will occupy 9/10 positions in the list, with a single Godspeed album at position 10. You’ll see.
Top 10 Films of 2009
2009 turned out to be another rubbish year of cinema. I nearly retired altogether from filmgoing after watching the abysmal Terminator Salvation. In fact I was barely able to think of enough films to compile a top 10 list. Also – regrettably – I didn’t manage to see a number of the higher rated films of the year: The Hurt Locker, Gomorrah (both crappy limited releases) and Ponyo (stupid UK distributers).
- A Serious Man
- The Wrestler
- Moon
- Synecdoche, New York
- Drag Me to Hell
- Fantastic Mr Fox
- Antichrist
- Inglorious Basterds
- District 13
- Avatar
Wolverine and Star Trek weren’t bad either, but we’re still only talking 12 films this year that were any good. My 3 worst films of the year are:
- Terminator Salvation
- Transformers 2
- Fast and Furious
… although there were some pretty diabolical trailers that I can’t even begin to contemplate.
Ghibli, Rain and Skyscrapers
After a quick breakfast in Starbucks we took a train to Mitaka on the Chuo line, near the animation district and home of the Ghibli Museum. Studio Ghibli’s answer to Disneyland – if Disneyland was a concrete bunker designed by Escher and invitation only – is situated in a leafy Tokyo suburb, easily accessible by train. There seem to be 3 methods of buying tickets:
- Purchase months in advance through one online travel agency
- With an official Japan Tourist Board tour
- From a Japanese-language vending machine from one of the many Lawson’s convenience stores.
We were too late for option 1, so weighing up the choice of option 2 (costing £42 a ticket) and option 3 (costing £6), we opted on 3 hoping to get by on our mostly non-existent understanding of Japanese written language.
Guarding the Ghibli museum is the rather sinister looking Totoro; he seemed to be fairly happy with our tickets, so we joined the queue of soggy Japanese families to get into the museum.
Pictures are forbidden inside, but to summarise: the museum consisted of a number of rooms demonstrating the tricks and techniques of animation, disturbingly narrow walkways, bridges and spiral staircases, a restaurant, a giftshop, and a cinema, which today was showing the short film Mizugumo Monomon -- the unlikely adventures of a diving bell spider and a water strider. Nicola was quite impressed by the full size Catbus. I won't even try to describe that one. I did watch a small child climb out of its eye, but that was enough really.
On our way back from Mitaka, we stopped at Shinjuku, to climb to the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan building (observation tower 2). Alas it was too late in the day to get a view of Mount Fuji, but the sprawl of Tokyo was clearly visible as far as the eye could see. I wasn't going anywhere near the glass, but fortunately a handy bar was serving Suntory The Premium Malt's (sic) while Nicola took pictures and tested the limits of the glass windows.
Shinjuku was an interesting and lively place, home to Tokyo's tallest skyscrapers, biggest shopping malls, brightest neon adverts, and packed full of shoppers, salarymen and touts. We followed the Rough Guide's suggested route to the best of our ability, but Tokyo's lack of street names makes accurate navigation somewhat unmanageable. We did however wonder into Kabukicho, Tokyo's answer to Soho, offering such delights as Sexy Pub, rows of Pachinko parlours, and discount camera shops.
On the way back through the station we got to experience our first sit-on-the-floor Japanese meal. The food was very good (and pretty cheap), and fortunately service was quick enough for our dead legs not to get us down.
Sapporo Beer Hall
We were feeling rather bleary eyed after the 12 hour journey so in an effort to stay awake we chose one of the more lively places in town to grab a couple of beers and a bite to eat, the Lion beer hall. This is the flagship of the Sapporo brewery and is a German style beer hall complete with a Mosaic behind the bar, dark wood paneling and cozy lighting.
We queued briefly outside as the place was bustling with locals, I couldn’t see any other foreigners though. Once inside we were shown to our table. There was a rather chaotic atmosphere as waiters rushed back and forth shouting at each other and delivering giant tankards of beer and steaming plates of food to tables. Ordering didn’t turn out to be difficult at all. As seems to be the norm here the window was complete with intricate plastic models of all the dishes served and the menu had an attempt at an english translation (well I say that but they managed to make some of the dishes sound pretty unappetizing…..like the Mexican noodles with chorizo salt flavour). As a tourist all is expected of you is to point to the picture of what you want and indicate how many you want…..easy! My next challenge was to eat the noodles we ordered with chopsticks without looking like a complete idiot and depositing most of it on the table…..I have been in training for the last month or so but I am sad to say my technique still leaves a lot to be desired. Whilst sipping at my lager I look around at the locals and see to my relief that a good amount of slurping and shoveling seems to be an acceptable technique. When the food arrived it was delicious and we polished it off quickly. After another beer we decide that we can’t manage to stay awake much longer, David’s eyes look as big as saucers and I think he might actually fall asleep and drown if he orders another beer. We pay up and wander back to hotel, only momentarily distracted by the corner shop where we buy a haagan dazs icecream for dessert. Then it is off to bed for a well deserved night sleep!
Tokyo -- First Impressions
Getting to our hotel couldn’t have been easier. You only have to stand still for 30 seconds and some helpful individual will pop out of thin air to help you out. We travelled into central Tokyo in style on the super-smart Narita Express (or N-Ex), taking us through the Tokyo suburbs as well as lush farmland and finally deep under Tokyo. We actually arrived in at Tokyo basement level 5! They’re still building underground lines in Tokyo and just keep going deeper and deeper and deeper.
We arrived at our hotel at midday – 2 hours early for our check-in, so decided to follow the rather massive procession working its way up the Ginza main street:
Following the procession fortuitously led us to a Lawsons convenience store where a super friendly store manager helped us to buy tickets for the Studio Gibli museum (one day he’s going to visit England so he can verify the myth of the double decker bus for himself) from the Japanese-only Loppi ticket vending machine. We’re booked in for 2pm tomorrow afternoon.
Opposite Lawsons we had to stop to take photographs of the slightly improbably motorway that is built on top of the river. Yes: on top. How else can you fit a city in the middle of Tokyo unless you fill in space needlessly wasted by things like rivers:
The architecture in Tokyo really has to be seen to be believed – there isn’t a meter squared of wasted space. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t another motorway built on top of this one.
Finnair
Before we get to the wonders of Tokyo; it’s worth a summary of our Finnair experience. Our journey took us via Helsinki, with a 90 minute transfer and ample chance to explore Helsinki terminal 2. The flight itself was fairly uneventful: a moderate lunch, entertainmentless flight, and the rather delightful discovery of Lapin Kulta, Finnair’s number one beer (their number 2 (Koff), is disappointingly average unfortunately.) Helsinki airport was another fine surprise: a super-efficient exercise in speedy transfers (try the pepperoni pizza and Lapin Kulta if you have more than 10 minutes to wait), concentrating on simple and navigable airport layout rather than just trying to sell you stuff. Listening to the Finnish announcers telling passengers to “hurry up” was enough entertainment in itself.
The second leg of the journey was even more pleasant with a modern, spacious plane, widescreen LCD displays mounted in all the seats, and a Bring me Lapin Kulta button in your seat. We watched the very entertaining Hangover and tried to get some sleep. Our only criticism the appalling and unidentifiable meals, one of which was simply identified as beef, the other: egg.